Europe aid chief urges UN resolution on Syria relief access

September 25, 2013|Reuters

* UN says half of Syria's 20 million people need help

* UN Security Council members pursuing new aid statement

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Europe's aid chief onWednesday urged the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolutionto boost humanitarian access in Syria, an issue that hassimmered for months in the shadow of plans for peace talks and adeal on destroying Syrian chemical weapons.

While 2 million Syrians have fled the civil war, there aremore than 4 million people displaced inside the country and inurgent need of help, but violence and bureaucratic red-tape hasslowed aid to a trickle, the United Nations has said.

The 15-member Security Council - long paralyzed on how todeal with the Syrian conflict - has for months been mullingaction on aid access. Western members recently decided to pursuea non-binding statement on the issue rather than a resolution toavoid a likely showdown with Russia and China, diplomats said.

"We are not giving up on the Security Council at some pointcoming up with a binding resolution on humanitarian access. Whenthis will take place we shall see," said EU Humanitarian AidCommissioner Kristalina Georgieva.

"If there is another form of expressing of support (for aidaccess) we welcome it but we do hope there will be a SecurityCouncil resolution," she told a news conference on the sidelinesof the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.

U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos last month sent the SecurityCouncil a wishlist to boost aid access in Syria that includedallowing cross-border delivery, humanitarian pauses in fightingand advance notice of military offensives.

U.N. diplomats have described the Amos list as ambitious andsaid any support from the council was unlikely to covercross-border access as Russia, a close ally of Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad, would probably object.

"But in practice a lot of the NGOs are operatingcross-border anyway (in rebel-held areas) and the biggestproblem is in government-held areas at the moment," said asenior U.N. diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

RUSSIA ENCOURAGING

The Security Council did reach a rare agreement in April ona non-binding statement on the humanitarian situation in Syriaafter Amos gave a bleak assessment of the situation. The UnitedNations now says half of Syria's 20 million people need help.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that he hadbeen "very encouraging" of Security Council members Australiaand Luxembourg, who are drafting a new statement on aid access.

Russia, backed by China, has vetoed three Security Councilresolutions since October 2011 that would have condemned Assad'sgovernment and threatened it with sanctions.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Tuesdaythat Australia hopes to circulate a draft statement amongcouncil members after a resolution is adopted on a resolution toget rid of Syria's chemical weapons.

Envoys from the five permanent council members - UnitedStates, Russia, France, China and Britain - have reached a dealon the core of a resolution on Syria's chemical weapons, Westerndiplomats said on Wednesday, but Russia insisted work was "stillgoing on."

The statement on Syria aid access had "been on hold for thelast two, three weeks because the focus has been on chemicalweapons, but we need to dig that out of the deep freeze and pushforward," the senior U.N. diplomat said.

Georgieva, the EU humanitarian aid commissioner, said thatthe resolution on Syria's chemical arms could also be used toboost aid access.

"The implementation of any agreement would require thatthere are inspectors inside Syria. These inspectors wouldrequire security and protection ... It is inconceivable that wewould not use this to help people more," she said.